Re: Request for... Wind instrument?

[Tim Conway <timcon@comswest.net.au>]

>    The GG content here is rather obscure, but I'm directly in the middle of
>reading George Santayana's "The Last Puritan" and I'm wondering if you could
>tell me an odd detail about sailing.  Do sailors call the wind by the
>direction it's coming from, the direction it's going toward, or are there a
>variety of traditions on how to talk about it?  That is to say, is are
>Newfoundlanders' south-west winds blowing against the Bay Du Nord or the Dog
>Bay Line?

A northerly wind is from the North (and therefore heading South) in most 
places I know. I've never heard mariners or meteorologists use the 
towards-direction method of naming, always the from-direction...but you 
never know. HTH.

Tim Conway
Broome, WA, Oz